Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
439. THE GOATHERD AND THE WILD GOATS
Perry 6 (Babrius
45)
Snow was falling from the sky. Seeking shelter from the storm, a goatherd
drove his goats, all covered with white from the thickly falling snow,
into a cave. He had thought the cave was empty, but he soon discovered
that there were some wild horned goats who had already taken shelter there.
The wild goats were far more numerous that his own goats and they were
also bigger and stronger. The goatherd therefore tossed the fodder he
had brought from the woods to the wild goats, while he let his own goats
go hungry. When the weather cleared, he found that his own goats had died,
while the wild goats had already gone away and were tramping their way
through the untrodden thickets upon the mountains where animals had not
yet grazed. The ridiculous goatherd went back home without any goats at
all: hoping for a larger flock he did not even profit from the goats that
were his to begin with.
Source:
Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura
Gibbs.
Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: New
cover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.
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